I don’t know how many people take screenshots on their machine like I do. As they say “A picture is worth 1000 words” and I think it would take a lot of words to describe just how useful I find this. When I have had to do this in the past, I used either a program like Snagit, or I would do the Alt-PrintScreen and paste into an image editing tool like Paint.Net. Then I would crop the picture to what I want.

With Windows 7, my approach is going to change. Shipping with the beta (and hopefully the final release is a tool called Snipping Tool. This let’s you snip a screenshot and save it to image format of your choice.

Once you snip it then it opens in the snipping tool editor where you can save it, mail it or use the drawing tools to write on it with a pen or highlighter. The eraser will erase the pen or highlighter marking that you make on the snipped image, but not the underlying image.

It may not have every feature that you want, but it seems to be a useful tool and saved me some time already.

I am a little embarrased that I had never seen this feature on Vista, until you pointed it out and I went looking for it. Now I could make excuses like my issue with running Vista in general, or the fact that I use XP on my work machine (which is completely true), but as you have pointed out this Snipping Tool is available in Vista, and I have seen no significant features differences between them. I guess if you are running XP on a development machine (like I am) then this is a cool feature on both Vista and Windows 7.

Do not be embarrased. I posted a blog entry on Sat ranting for MS to add ISO (Burn and Mount) support to Windows 7 before even checking if they did it! And they did add Burn ISO (right click an ISO and choose Burn to disk!)

I was installing 7 in Hyper-V when I read your post. I should have waited and given you a better reply.

I like the Snipping tool too, but after an update... it was GONE. It was happily residing in the "Start" menu (what do they call it now?) beneath sticky notes. After I did some updates, I looked for it again and the shortcut was not to be seen. I searched on it, but all I get is the Record Steps control panel. I'd really like this tool back. Any insight?

Vista also has Snipping Tool, and you can get it working on XP too as well (even 2 versions: Vista and Tablet PC's) : http://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/4069-get-vista-snipping-tool-sticky-notes-inkball-texas-holdem-rtm-ported-to-xp/

The snipping tool is only available in Vista if you have the 'tablet pc options' switched on. Most people [like me] switch it off as it has annoying features, like an onscreen keyboard, on bootup. Sadly, though, if you switch it off, the snipping tool won't work. On XP, you can download a free program called 'snippy' which does the same thing - we use this in school all the time to evidence changes made to documents, so that we dont' have to print out the whole document every time. Snippy won't work on vista, though, sadly. http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/

I'm not sure if this was included in the updates or whatnot, but I just downloaded Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit onto my computer last week and it does have the snipping tool and it DOES work on my computer, i just checked. I was actually on this site to find out what snipping tool is, it sounds very useful!

The snipping tool in windows 7 64-bit was working fine for me at first, but then it just stopped completely. When I try to open it, all I get is a pop-up box with a red x in it. Nothing gets logged to event logs, and I can't see a way to debug this process.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing the tablet pc components -- did not help.

I have tried repairing and uninstalling/reinstalling Office 2007 -- did not help.

I know a better tool, that works evrywhere, it's called SnapaShot. In Vista and Win 7 you can capture the screen, using only 2 buttons.Everyone is welcome to download a free version from here: http://nicekit.com/screen-capture/best-free-snapshot.htm

I have Windows 7 64bit Professional and it did not come standard...so I reinstalled the Tablet PC Components, which didn't show the StickyNotes or Snipping Tool in Accessories. However, if you navigate to <%windir%\system32\> both executables are there to create a shortcut in your taskbar/startmenu/desktop/etc.

I recently got a dell netbook with windows 7 home basic (so snipping isn´t installed). I've tried in "Turn Windows Features on or off" in the control panel but there is no an criteria called "Tablet PC Components". Is there any way to install it?

When I access the snipping tool -message saysThe Snipping tool is not working on your computer right now. Restart your computer etc-contact your system administrator. I have just come across this feature after 1 1/2 yrs and it probably never worked . Oh yeah and when I start up my laptop- screen is upside down in the projection format(holding down the fn and f4 key enables me to rightside up the screen--) HP sucks. Any other ways to capture a screen --forget the prt sc that doesnt work either

I have Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit, I know Snipping tool is not included in this version. But is there any possibility so i that i can use the same snipping tool in my OS. Else advise me any other good snipping tool. Thanks if anyone helped me..